MNI BRIEF: China Should Boost Affordable Housing: ex-Official

China should consider increasing the supply of affordable housing, especially for the low-income groups, helping to boost their disposal income and push up consumption levels, Bai Chongen, a former member of the People's Bank of China Monetary Policy Committee told the CAIJING Annual Conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

Consumers spend a large part of their income on housing, with home prices pushed up by local governments' restricted land supply, as they seek to boost revenue from land sales. This is levying an implicit tax on homes, said Bai, now dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University and means the disposal income data currently calculated by the statistics authority is overestimated.

Building more affordable housing will also create more job opportunities, Bai added.